Nicole Kidman

“From a budget standpoint, going into Season 2 of Big Little Lies without any options in place, we’ve been… um… short of raped,” Deadline quoted HBO drama chief Francesca Orsi as saying at the INTV conference in Jerusalem. After her words were picked up, Orsi walked back her comments. “Obviously, I am embarrassed by my poor choice of words,” she said on Tuesday in a statement to TVLine. “We are extremely proud of Big Little Lies and excited for the second season.”

The Big Little Lies collaborators are reteaming for a miniseries in which Kidman will play a therapist who, in the wake of a "very public disaster," dismantles her old life and starts a new one with her young child. The project is based on Jean Hanff Korelitz’s novel You Should Have Known. “We’re thrilled to continue our creative relationships with both Nicole and David,” says HBO programming president Casey Bloys. “and can’t wait to bring this show to life.”

Big Little Lies author Liane Moriarty says Streep was her dream casting for the new role of Perry’s mom . “And the producers were laughing at me because they were saying, ‘You’ve become so Hollywood,’ as in, picking up the phone and saying, ‘Get me Meryl,’” says Moriarty, in an interview with The Telegraph. “They were teasing me … but then they were saying, it’s not beyond the realm of possibilities because Nicole and Meryl are friends.” Moriarity says Kidman pulled through: “Nicole sent me an email saying, ‘Ask and you shall receive.’”

The acclaimed actress will become a series regular on the HBO drama for Season 2, playing Mary Louise Wright, the mother of Alexander Skarsgard’s character. HBO says her character will arrive in Monterey “searching for answers” while “concerned for the well-being of her grandchildren.” Streep’s last major TV stint was on HBO, where she was one of the big names on the 2003 miniseries Angels in America. Streep’s casting reunites her with The Hours co-star Nicole Kidman. ALSO: David E. Kelley said in October his dream casting goal was "adding Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep to Big Little Lies."

Witherspoon and Kidman made between $250,000 and $350,000 an episode for Season 1, but they weren’t signed on for Season 2 since Big Little Lies was originally a limited series. But since Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston are making “upward of $1.25 million per episode” for their new Apple television show, Kidman and Witherspoon’s have scored a big pay raise — “$1 million-an-episode ballpark” — to sign on for Season 2 of their HBO series, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “Those numbers skyrocketed for season two not only because of the show's success, but also because of the precedent of the massive payday Witherspoon scored from Apple,” says The Hollywood Reporter.

“Everybody approached it from a place of love and care (for) these characters and this property, and again, with a little dose of skepticism along the way,” says HBO programming chief Casey Bloys. He emphasized that Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon are too busy to do another season if it wasn’t worth it. “It was done, in my mind, for the right reason,” says Bloys. “They set a really high bar, and I think everybody involved believes it’s either going to hit that bar and exceed it, or we wouldn’t do it. We didn’t start with, ‘We must do this.’”

Shailene Woodley is not confirmed to return for the seven-episode second season, but HBO says that “most of the cast is expected to return, and negotiations are underway.” HBO programming president Casey Bloys added: “I’m excited to announce the return of Big Little Lies. David Kelley wrote beautiful scripts and Reese and Nicole were, once again, a force to be reckoned with, reuniting the cast and recruiting the talented Andrea Arnold to direct. We look forward to working with this amazing group of artists.”

The acclaimed filmmaker says she loves what she's seen on the small screen, especially Big Little Lies, which she says Top of the Lake helped paved the way for. But, she adds, “I really didn’t like Westworld.” She says of the TV renaissance: “There’s an intelligent audience for television [right now] that is robust, who do not get spooked easily and who enjoy this stuff. They can take it. And they’re smart.”